Following a considerable amount of hard work from students and staff, St. Mary’s Menston have been awarded Fairtrade Schools Status

To qualify for the award, the school had to meet five set goals:• to set up a Fairtrade student group• adopt a Fairtrade Policy,adopt a Fairtrade Policy• to teach Fairtrade lessons• sell Fairtrade products and sell Fairtrade products• to actively campaign for Fairtrade.

The school planned a series of activities planned to raise awareness of Fairtrade products. These activities included a “Crossbar Challenge”, quiz, bun sales and creative writing and prayer workshops.

The Fairtrade Award was presented to the school by Stuart Andrew MP in a special assembly to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight 2014 (24 February to 9 March).

“I am incredibly proud to see that you have really taken this to heart and it is absolutely fantastic that St. Mary’s is a Fairtrade school. You should all be very proud.”

— Stuart Andrew MP

“I am very happy and extremely proud of the students who have put a lot of effort into ourapplication and I thank them for their involvement throughout the past year. The networking we have done as a school and the enthusiasm from the whole school community has been terrific. Fairtrade is a simple yet massively life-changing thing that we can all take part in. The Fairtrade mark is a guarantee that a product has been produced ethically and therefore we felt that our school had a responsibility to support this.”

— Mr J Tunnecliff, the staff member responsible for the application

The Fairtrade Assessor said of St. Mary’s application:"Congratulations, St. Mary's! It is evident that you are working very hard to make Fairtrade a vital part of your school life and that the entire student and staff body are embracing it with great enthusiasm. Your hard work has paid off - I am very pleased to recommend you for approval and am excited to see what you do in the future."

Gaining the Fairtrade School Status is important to St. Mary’s Menston as it forms part of our commitment to global justice. It also follows the words of Pope Francis to be a Church of the poor, working for people who are poor around the world. The school forms part of this Global Church.